Last year over the holidays I was listening to different instrumental song covers on YouTube when I discovered the cello. The sound of the instrument was absolutely spellbinding and this made me listen to more cello music. I really wanted to learn to play the cello but my parents  weren’t very sure about my choice as the cello is quite a big instrument therefore it’s a hassle to carry it around and it’s quite hard to find cello music teachers in Sri Lanka.

Ms. Savitri Jayatileke is a famous cellist in Sri Lanka who has represented the country a number of times. She got the opportunity to play for the “First World Cello Congress” in 1988 conducted by the famous cellist Rostropovich. She also got two wonderful opportunities to perform with the “World Philharmonic Orchestra” in Arizona and Rio de Jeneiro.

I too was fortunate to learn the cello from a teacher with a lot of experience. Firstly I started by learning about the instrument, famous cellists and then moved onto the different cello positions. My teacher and I thought that earning credit from the Trinity College of London is valuable and she enrolled me for the grade 1 cello examination in October 2018.

I practiced a lot for this exam and I was very confident when I walked into the examination room.The exam went off well and I really enjoyed playing for the exam and it didn’t feel at all like an exam.

I couldn’t believe when my teacher told me my results. I got 99 out of 100!!! I was shocked but happy at the same time.

I have already started  to prepare for the  grade 3 exam now. What is really nice is that my teacher gives extra cello music to play so that I don’t only focus on playing the exam music which makes the lesson fun. It’s also nice to derail once in a while from the exam work and to work on other music pieces and to learn different styles of music.